Letter: No defence

This government's excuses for cancelling the Nimrod MRA4, advanced by Defence Secretary Dr Liam Fox among others (your report, 28 January), have all the believability of the notes I used to write for myself to get off some classes at school.

The last government withdrew the Nimrod MR2 from service because it had reached the end of its operational life. This created a dangerous gap in our defence capability that was to be filled by the replacement Nimrod MRA4.

Cancelling the MRA4 still leaves that gap, and all for the sake of saving 2 billion over the next ten years.

This year alone we will spend 9.1bn on foreign aid, some of which goes to India, thereby helping them to fund their space programme. The word unbelievable is inadequate to describe this lunacy.

Malcolm Parkin

Gamekeepers Road

Kinnesswood, Kinross